I was listening to someone today talking about how Post Modernists seek to eliminate the concept of objectivity. The person speaking indicated they view truth as subjective.
I get what they are saying. I have said truth is subjective as well. It is. Before you freak out I'll explain, because they also miss some very important things.
There are really two perspectives:
- Truth / Subjective.
- Facts / Objective.
People will say there is an ultimate Truth. I contend there is an ultimate fact. There is an objective state of reality that is real regardless of our opinions, and interpretations. It simply is. When people talk about the ultimate truth it is this which I believe they are actually referring to.
So why is truth subjective?
You have learned things in your life. You have seen things with your eyes. You have heard things with your ears. You have received input from your other senses. These things have combined in your mind. They are the only thing that you have to operate on. You do not have access to the minds of others, the information you have never encountered, the things you have never interacted with your senses, etc. Thus, there are aspects about this ULTIMATE TRUTH that YOU will never know. Thus, the truth as you refer to it is limited by what YOU know. You form your truth from all the information you have encountered. There is still a vast amount you have not encountered. Thus, the truth is subjective. It is your interpretation of the things you have encountered in your life.
This truth should be a moving target. As you encounter new things those things should change that ultimate image of truth as you incorporate them into your personal knowledge. Your subjective truth changes.
Guess what? This is a FACT about all of us. Each of us can only be expected to operate with the information and experiences we have had in our life. We cannot be expected to incorporate knowledge we have never encountered within our beliefs about reality.
There are points where FACTS and TRUTH overlap. When the amount of variables involved are small in number it is possible to know an outcome. We use this with mathematics for example. You can know the ultimate outcome of a mathematical process provided you have all the variables. As more variables are added this becomes increasingly difficult.
If variables are not known but we know they exist then we can try to give probabilities or know a range of possible answers, but we cannot know certainty. Even that though becomes much more difficult to comprehend as the amount of variables increase in number.
If you look around you at reality there are a vast number of variables about how it works, what it is, why it is, etc. Even the full scope of variables in the room around you is so vast that there are things you likely don't even realize you cannot know. The dust motes, the microbial life forms moving about, the minute changes in air currents around these small changes, and more.
That is just a single room.
Move into the next room and the variables expand. Move outside and they become vast.
The truly amazing thing is when you start realizing all the variables you don't even know about. When you consider that each piece of knowledge you lack is another variable that is not present in your model of the ultimate truth.
Truth is subjective. That is all it can be. We are not gods, omniscient, omnipotent, etc. We would need to be to even consider it not subjective. Even then it might be debateable.
That does not mean there is no objective ultimate fact about reality. There is. Yet all we can do is strive to guess at what that is as we gather more and more information in our lifetime.
Now this post was intended to refer to the BIG PICTURE truth, but I want to touch upon one other aspect that is often wielded like a weapon. Very often it is done so in an act of injustice.
"X is a liar", "X lies all the time", etc.
A lie is the act of INTENTIONALLY speaking what a person knows not to be true.
For example: If I know I was at a restaurant yesterday, but I say I wasn't then that is a lie.
However, if I am asked six months from now if I was at a restaurant yesterday and I say "I don't know", or "I don't think so" it is only a LIE if I remember that I was there then and I am just covering. If I can't remember exactly then it is not a lie. There is no intent.
You see there is a big difference between being WRONG and telling a LIE.
We are all wrong frequently and about a great many things. This is life. Hopefully we learn from it and grow as people from the opportunity to learn that being wrong affords us. Being wrong is not the same as lying.
People frequently form opinions and speak about things they lack the facts about. To someone who knows some of those facts to them it may appear a LIE. If they were the one speaking it then yes it would be a lie as they would know what they were speaking was false and that indicates intent. If a person believes what they are saying even if they are wrong then that is not lying or a lie. To them it is the truth.
"Speak the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth."
A person can agree to that. They can speak the truth. They can still be wrong.
If a person was told...
"Speak the facts, the entire facts, and nothing but the facts."
That would be very difficult and almost impossible to do.
"Just the facts ma'am."
Tell me the details beyond dispute, that do not require opinion, or interpretation.
Here is a fact about reality.
It doesn't care about our opinions.
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